Deck Tech: Purple Luffy

Today, we'll discuss a deck with one of the strongest Leaders in One Piece TCG's current format, one of the Leaders released in set 05: Monkey.D.Luffy OP05-060, only this time in his Purple version!

Purple Luffy, or "Pluffy", as he is called in the community, is a simple Leader, but he offers an incredibly varied play versatility. Its ability states "[On your turn] [Once per turn]: You can place the card at the top of your health pile in your hand, and, if you do, add a DON!! from your DON!! deck to the board and set it as "Active".

What makes this Leader strong is that the DON!! he adds comes in active on the board, and therefore it can speed up cards that cost more and impact the board more heavily. Like so, the most popular lists with him focus a lot on big creatures, and rarely have plays available on turn one.

Strategy

This Leader's game plan basically centers around having more DON!! way before your opponent, and overloading them with big plays that create a lot more value for you. This will force your opponent to decide between developing their game plan or preventing you from developing yours. Use this time in your favor.

The fact Luffy has 5 health allows him to use his ability a few times in the game - but be careful, lowering your health total too much can be dangerous. Always have in mind which deck you're playing against and if your board and hand are strong enough to protect you if your opponent decides to attack you with all they got!

New Cards

Even though our Leader is new, this deck mainly has cards from other sets, except these two:

Miss Doublefinger(Zala) OP05-073, most times, will be used as a counter, but its "On Play" ability allows you to use a card without a counter that is dead in your hand. We'll see later on that this is something that will happen somewhat frequently. It can transform this card into a DON!! which, on the next turn, can be essential to turn the game in your favor.

Eustass"Captain"Kid OP05-074, on the other side, will be your greatest tool in the game, considering its ability to return an active DON!! when you use a DON!! -1 ability allows you to create a lot more value in less time and can also disrupt your opponent's game plan without requiring you to spend your resources. Besides, it has 6000 power and the "Blocker" ability, which means it is a good barrier for your Leader, and forces your opponent to deal with him as fast as possible. Like so, it will give you what this Leader wants the most: Time.

Always try to play it on the board as fast as possible in your matches.

Old Cards

There are some cards that have already been released that make this Leader even more powerful. These are the main ones:

Starting with Purple's most beloved card, we have the All-Star, Queen ST04-005.

As it is a card included in preconstructed decks, Queen is rare to find, but your search will be worth it because this card can, for 5 DON!!: Draw cards, filter your hand, place a strong body on the board and also activate abilities that interact with DON!! -1.

A good example we can list is: If you have an Eustass"Captain"Kid OP05-074 on the board, you, theoretically, will have all these effects for just 4 DON!!, and Kid will return the DON!! you returned with Queen's ability. Besides, it will be an excellent blocker, and, if you want to try and end the game, it will be a formidable attacker.

Paulie OP03-066 also helps you with value. Even though it costs 5 DON!!, you'll always play it when you have 7 DON!! on the board to take advantage of its ability as much as you can, remove a piece from your opponent and also place another DON!! on your board. Paulie will always be a decent play, even on later turns, because it can remove a blocker from your opponent and open the way for you to attack for the last time.

Magellan OP02-085, on another side, is situational, and will often be chilling in your hand just waiting to be discarded through some effect. However, when this warden finds the right time to enter the battlefield, he becomes a brutal play. Magellan disrupts your opponent's entire line of reasoning, and becomes an incredibly difficult card to remove from the board due to its "On K.O." ability, which returns 2 opponent DON!! to their deck, delaying them, in theory, for a full turn. Magellan is more used in matches against Yellow, which has a well-defined line of play since the very first turn, and it is a key piece that will help Monkey.D.Luffy OP05-060 create his game plan to play against the Leaders in this color.

Cards to Take your Opponent's Breath Away

There are two cards that, when they enter the board at the right time, cause terror in the hearts of your opponents:

This surgeon of death's ability can destroy your opponent's strategy entirely if you manage to discard the right cards. This card is effective even when it isn't on the board because your opponent will always play around it, keeping less than 7 cards in their hand religiously. This will force them to block small attacks, forcing them to spend resources in their hand with less investment, and like so we can say Trafalgar Law ST10-010 discards your opponent's cards without even entering the battlefield!

Kaido ST04-003, unlike Law, has a much more palpable impact, simply going in, removing some big card from your opponent and attacking them with an attack number that is difficult to handle. It is your deck's big threat, a card that is incredibly challenging to handle, and forces your opponent to ignore it most times because, usually, it will be better for them to develop their game plan to the point Luffy can no longer hold them back than to try and to deal with Kaido.

Let's now see this Leader's most popular list and a suggestion for a different list:

Winner List

This version focuses on filling the board with 4-cost, 6000 power characters, bringing multiple strong attacks on your turn, which is a good strategy with Edward.Newgate OP02-001 and Monkey.D.Luffy ST10-002. It also has Magellan OP02-085 to break the curve of yellow decks.

However, this list is a bit weaker against Sakazuki OP05-041, considering their plays will always cost less, which means it will be easy for this Leader to remove the cards above. Even then, this deck doesn't stay that far behind because it has Paulie OP03-066, which can remove cards while adding DON!! to the board, and its cost fits the game tempo in which Sakazuki has their most important plays nicely. It is a way to build this deck a bit more defensively, sacrificing some cards that could create more value to open space for cards with "Counter 2000", which means your opponent will struggle to hit you.

Note: Scratchmen Apoo OP01-103 can be any card that costs 4, has 6000 power and "Counter 1000". Some examples are:

List Suggestion

This list focuses a bit more on huge plays to overwhelm your opponent. It is a bit more efficient against Sakazuki because it has characters that cost more, and force your opponent to spend more resources to remove them; otherwise they'll face huge attacks every turn.

It also focuses more on speeding up DON!!. Usually, you'll use your Leader's ability two turns in a row to use Zoro-Juurou OP05-067's ability, and reach 7 DON!! as soon as possible.

This version, however, doesn't have many removals, which means it is harder to interact with your opponent, and, most times, you'll have to use Sheep's Horn OP01-117 to remove blockers from your way. There's also Gild Tesoro ST05-006 to draw more cards because this version has fewer counters than other versions, and needs a full hand at all times to defend itself against aggressive decks, lowering the number of Magellan OP02-085.

It might be difficult to play matches against Yellow, but, even then, it has shown great results.

Let's discuss some of the most common matchups in the current meta and how to act against them!

Sakazuki

Against Sakazuki, the best play you can set up early game is the Ulti - Page One interaction because, despite slowing you down, it will put pressure on Sakazuki, which won't be able to remove both cards at the same time on your turn, which will buy you time to build a board that is more consistent.

Keep in mind that most Sakazuki lists don't have many "Counter 2000", so attack as much as you can.

Another important tip when you play against Sakazuki: if you can defend attacks with your blockers, do, because they'll very likely be removed anyway, so take as much advantage as you can from them.

Enel

Usually, the game will be very favorable to you. Always remove Enel OP05-098's characters when you have the chance.

The problem will be at the end of the game when Enel starts activating their ability. Keep in mind that you need to hit it three times at the end of the game to defeat them. Don't lower them down to zero health because this deck has many ways of refilling this health total and activating their ability another time.

When Enel has one health point, save your big attacks to hit it all at once, even if you need to skip attacks to do so. Keep in mind Enel's "triggers" as well - always have a way to remove a blocker from the board, and be ready for an eventual Capone from the top of the health pile.

Zoro

This match is incredibly difficult for Purple Luffy. Zoro has an extremely strong aggressive potential, and can overwhelm you by attacking multiple times per turn. The best way to deal with him is by establishing your board as fast as possible, and trying to end their hand and like so prevent them from reacting while you control their board.

Be careful with Luffy because he will deny you blockers. Always try to keep at least one health point up, and, at the end of the game, try to chip away health points from Zoro slowly, so you don't give them many reactions that may catch you off-guard.

Edward Newgate

Newgate is also a tough match because, even if they chip away their own health points, Newgate will always have enough to defend your attacks.

Any time you can, try to hit a Law to remove their hand, considering it will be quite common for your opponent to have more than 7 cards in hand. Additionally, always try to defend their strikes because you'll need every health point you can get to try and hit a final attack.

Others

Luffy will usually perform well against any other decks, and is an excellent opponent for this format's "Rogue" decks. The way you play him doesn't even change much from deck to deck to take them down. Usually, what you need to do will be quite obvious, such as, for instance, using Trafalgar Law ST10-010 if your opponent has 7 or more cards in hand.

How to Win against Luffy?

As said before, this Leader struggles against decks that are more aggressive. So, if you're playing against an aggressive deck, try to lower your health pile to discourage them from using their ability, always focus on Trafalgar Law ST10-010, and somehow always leave Kid on the board. At the end of the game, always save a Kaido ST04-003 in your hand. This can really help you when it's time to calculate your final attack!

Purple Luffy is definitely one of the strongest Leaders in this format, and there are several ways to build him. It has conquered many titles in big tournaments and will surely remain as a top choice until the next set comes along. This is the first Leader who pushed this color into the spotlight, and we'll very likely see more versions of him as new cards are released!

But, what about you? Which of the 3 great Leaders in this set is your favorite? And which one do you think will remain after rotation?

See you next time!